How should I practice Marketing?
Hello! I was wondering if I could get some advice on how I could practice marketing without having a project to learn on?
As mentioned above I don’t have a project to market and I don’t think my current skill level is enough to freelance. I’m kinda stuck on what I should do next, I don’t have the coding knowledge to create something nor do I have funds.
I had two ideas. I could learn more about marketing and attempt to start freelancing. However I’m just not sure how much I can learn without doing first. The other idea would be to start a blog on a budget and practice SEO.
Any help on different ideas and input is greatly appreciated. Thanks!
Hi Noah,
One of the things you can learn so much from is offering your services for free. Especially here on indiehackers.com there are so many startups that can use some marketing advice. Say you create a topic and tell people you want to practice your marketing skills so you offer 10 people a free mini-marketing plan. This might sound scary but you'd be surprised how many people would love that and would be willing to give you feedback on your skills as well. The best way for learning is by doing.
Another thing you can do if you do 10 mini-marketing plans for free, is to blog about them. Show people what you can offer and your learning curve. This way you also build up some SEO content and some testimonials. So whenever you think you are ready to go freelancing you have some social proof. And don't raise the standard for starting with freelancing too high. I did my first website for €150.
If you decide to do this, I'll be your first customer ;-)
This is an incredibly helpful reply! I had thought about offering help here but was unsure if my experience would result in nobody wanting it. I think I’ll be reconsidering the idea now. Thanks again for the advice!
Hey Noah, I'd suggest starting into it in a way you're comfortable.
I really enjoy marketing and wanted to practice it so I started a blog where I documented my journey through it.
Here's the blog's origin story which you might be able to relate to:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8PBhD3qgLag&feature=youtu.be
And here's the blog itself:
https://marketingqualified.com/blog/
It's all about documenting the journeys you participate in and being consistent. Keep trying, keep creating, keep experiencing (and keep moving).
I hope this helps you and I'm excited to see what you decide to do!
Really enjoyed this answer. Specifically when you mentioned to start in a way your comfortable. This made me take a step back and try to analyze what I’m the most comfortable with and zero in on it. Thanks again for the reply!
Anytime :)
The other piece of advice I have relates to some conversations I've had with people who hit it big without taking out loans, venture capital, and so on -- they've built sustainable businesses utilizing amazing people and community.
The theme among each of their story was deciding to hone in on one channel (Instagram for example) and to post every day as part of a challenge.
A guy named Griff Macauley did this and after a year of sharing his drawings on Instagram everyday, he had enough supporters on Patreon that he could leave his job. Then he started a Kickstarter and closed over $900,000 Canadian. Pretty neat story :)
And at this stage, it's not all about the money rather getting your feet wet. Best of luck :)